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Hey @david-hanes, ribs are notoriously difficult to pin to a specific taxon without the context of what is found within a given unit. I fear Mammalia is about as good as we are going to get in this case. As with the other specimens, we need some confirmation that these are definitively Pleistocene and not modern bone.

Sean,
Out of the 4 disarticulated bones from Tishomingo Creek I posted today, this disarticulated mammalia (rib) bone specimen has the greatest weight and density of them all, and therefore I would call it a fossil bone.
I agree with you that it is difficult to date and identify, but too many other collectors/paleontologists have found many fossils of (late Pleistocene) extinct mammal species in these MS creeks in Lee, Pontotoc, Union and Itawamba Cos.

I appreciate your help…

Dave

Thanks @david-hanes! Yeah, I understand completely. It can be so hard to tell sometimes whether a specimen is or is not a fossil (i.e., Pleistocene vs. Holocene/modern) even in areas that have a definitive Pleistocene component to the fauna. Permineralization can occur pretty quickly in modern bone, particularly in creeks, giving the specimens a denser feel than you would otherwise expect. I think in the case of these specimens, because we can’t 100% confirm they are from an extinct taxon I’ll have to mark them as curated but not research grade. Regardless, they are still interesting and valuable specimens!